Friday, April 15, 2011

Last year Hazel Poa of NSP caught Minister Mah fudging the numbers to show that housing was still "affordable"[Link.] I thought Minister Mah would have learnt not to do something so deceptive again. Unfortunatlely, we will have to catch Minister Mah again....this time for fudging logic...

"Minister Mah Bow Tan warned against the Workers' Party (WP) call for cheaper HDB flats on Thursday, saying it would mean larger subsidies for housing at the expense of other needs, such as healthcare, education or defence.

Calling the opposition party's manifesto 'irresponsible', he noted that the WP had not said where the extra money would come from, and pressed them to reveal the implications of their proposals." - Straits Times (see article below).

Minister Mah calls WP irresponsible for its plan to provide more affordable flats. He says that cheaper flats means more housing subsidies and less money for education and healthcare. Let me ask you a simple question. In the past few years when the price of HDB flats surge by more than 50% , by Minister Mah's logic, the govt should be awashed with more money from selling HDB flats for healthcare and education - if that is so, why did the govt implement means testing to cut subsidies for healthcare and why did they have to raise school fees for universities and cuts subsidies for education of children with special needs etc? The fact is budget has little to do with HDB selling price. If anything, when the HDB prices go up, the HDB actually shows more losses due to "market subsidies" which increase proportionately with price. Why is this so?

1. Land sales are not included in the govt revenue in the budget. This has been a long standing issue because it distorts the fiscal picture and Sylvia Lim of WP has called for the situation to be fixed[Link] so that Singaporeans can get a more accurate picture of govt expediture vs revenue.

2. A large component of HDB flat sale price is due to cost of land priced at the market.

3. HDB buys land from SLA at market price. The revenue of land sales is not included in the budget's revenue figures.

4. The HDB then includes the land cost plus other cost to price new HDB flats. It then sells it at a "market subsidised" prices to flat buyers.

When the price of flats surge up by 50%, no significant amounts of money went to subsidise healthcare and education. Similarly, if the price rise of flats is kept close to changes in median incomes as suggested by the WP amd by pricing the land sales to HDB accordingly, govt healthcare and education expediture will not be affected.

Linking public housing to median income changes is sensible because if housing price move significantly vs income, it means that Singaporeans have to take up more debt to financed their home purchases. Every where else in the world, public housing is priced for affordability and not directly linked to market prices. The high debt taken up by ordinary Singaporeans pay for expensive new HDB flats...most of the money eventually goes into our reserves i.e. GIC. The issue of risk free gains when 1st time buyers sell in the resale market can be addressed by lengthening the lockup periods for selling the flat and limiting the number of timeas a person can buy directly from the HDB. In the long run a healthy steady state should be housing market where prices are closely correlated with inome gains. When you have prices moving up 50% without the corresponding gains in income, debt piles up and a bubble forms.

--------NEWS
Apr 14, 2011

Mah Bow Tan: WP manifesto 'irresponsible'
By Teo Wan Gek

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan warned against the Workers' Party (WP) call for cheaper HDB flats.

NATIONAL Development Minister Mah Bow Tan warned against the Workers' Party (WP) call for cheaper HDB flats on Thursday, saying it would mean larger subsidies for housing at the expense of other needs, such as healthcare, education or defence.

Calling the opposition party's manifesto 'irresponsible', he noted that the WP had not said where the extra money would come from, and pressed them to reveal the implications of their proposals.

'You can't get something for nothing,' he said on the sidelines of the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Corporate Seminar.

The WP had unveiled its 63-page manifesto on Saturday. Called Towards A First World Parliament, it contains proposals on 15 broad areas of public policy, with a number focusing on hot-button issues like public housing and immigration.

One of the key points under public housing was to allow for cheaper HDB flats by pegging the price of the flats to the median incomes of households that qualify to buy them, instead of pegging them to resale market prices. Another was for flats to be affordable enough that mortgages can be paid off in 20 years instead of 30.

128 comments:

Ben
said...

Yes, so long as the sale price is pegged above construction costs (hard construction costs, soft costs and financing costs but not land), the government does not need to come up with more money. One way to insulate the rest of the 99 year leasehold public flats market is that these "cheaper-er" flats are sold with more restrictions eg 30/60 year lease, 10 year MOP and if sold, can only be sold to Singaporeans. This will give new Singaporeans the choice to buy a cheaper public flat and with the option of investing the balance of their wages for retirement. To prevent these lowcost flats turning into slums, the government will have to cease selling new 99 year leasehold flats once this is implemented.

This idea looks ilke its turning into a monster already (and it goes against the PAP mantra of rooting (or chaining) Singaporeans to Singapore through creating something that Singaporeans will die for in defending Singapore) but I do not think the asset enhancement model is sustainable in the long run - not when a couple has to work 30 years to pay off a housing loan leaving little savings and no choice but to work all their lives and even unlikelier option of one of the two being a stay home dad or mom.

Why would a couple saddled with a 30 yr mortgage, meaning none can be jobless during this period, have any thoughts of having children to complicate matters? and also to take care of aging parents? Perhaps the "A" team ministers can provide a solution.

I disagree with the above poster statement why singaporeans do like others who emigrated to singapore...

He/She has to understand many of these "new" foreign emigrants are allowed easily into singapore plus there are existing PAP policies to benefit them 1st over the locals...also quite a number of these "talent" were pursued by the PAP government using tax payers monies for scholarships/etc...

In other countries, their governments policies are the mirror or reversed of PAP policies...ONLY REAL and PROVEN "foreign talents" are allowed and even than you don't see these gov't molly coddling and baby sitting them all the way using tax payers funds.

The above poster needs to open his / her eyes wider and re-think or find more factual information. And than decide what he / she has posted and the reasons stated is holistic enough and true in the face of the facts available of how other countries government policies makes sense vis-a-vis PAP government policies.

To those who kept saying that oppositions won't make a different because of potentially limited seats, I disagree and observed that the oppositions have actually made a lot of progress on the ground since the last election. We desperately need more alternate voices in the parliament and every small step the oppositions take counts.

Yes, we need to publicise the weakness in Mah arguments. As a dad myself, I do not mind a lower resale price now, if I can be assured that my children will have an affordable HDB in future, pegged to their affordabilty, not market price. I like WP long term vision, which sadly, Mah do not have.

MBT should take up GMS challenge for a debate live on TV on the HDB issue. With thousands of netizens reading political blogs etc, it would not put MBT in good stead if he chose to shy away from that challenge. Come on MBT, show to GMS and WP that you know best when it comes to cheap and affordable public housing.

This mah is rubbish. The high price of hdb flats is mathematically due to insufficient supply and increase demand due to increase in population. but the main cause of the high price is due to his laziness and slacking on the job.

According to many rich sinkie, putting their money in CPF are the sore thing they had done. The reason is the government of a country are like god. ie They can create money from nothing. By saying that the flat will go-up in value, the Government said that they will print money to enable the price of your flat go up every year.

look at CHINA, even their currencies are undervalue, they still hold or increase slightly their exchange rate. How they do it, they print money to buy American dollar and then buy American' commodities to enable their inflation spread to America. To help their own people, they increase their bank saving interest rate.Everybodies win except the foreigner.

Look at Singapore, The Government still kept the bank saving rate so low. Poor SIngaporean had to bear the high inflation and lost out.

Why can't Bank Offer better rate? it is because they have no need to borrow from the Poor SIngapore through their bank account. Whatever Amount of money needed will be supplied from the Government Money Printer. The Government had become a competitor to our poor Singaporean. For the rich Singaporeans and foreigners, many have bought properties with the help of the bank loan. Increase in interest rate is negative to them. NO need to guess, where the government heart are leaning toward with..

There is no need to insulate resale prices. As long as the gov does not increase the prices of new houses, it will provide an upper limit to how high resale prices can go up. And that will inturn limit how high mass market private property prices can go up. This is the best way to limit the housing bubble. But of course the current measures provide more money for the gov. As far as I can see the gov tries to squeeze more money each time there is a problem, not so much solve the problem

I have 3 kids. At the rate housing prices are going. They would have to live with me for the rest of their lives. I'll be quite happy if housing prices go down to what it was 5 years ago. Anyway, it's mostly the rich who will be in trouble.

They don't believe Mah. The Gov believes in Mah.Where does this lead to?A 15k reward for french kissing in parliament or topple the Gov?Turn to the voters?The voters are clueless basically and their decisions establishes nothing.

@anon 14.01 ....apart from property developer, how many local Singaporeans are property investors. Only a small percentage benefited from this surge in property prices ie. developers (HDB included), the rich, the well-connected and banks. If you are daft, that doesnt mean everyone is.

---------------------3. HDB buys land from SLA at market price. The revenue of land sales is not included in the budget's revenue figures.

-----------------

But SLA does not buy the land from private owners at market price.

SLA had used the Land Acquisition Act to forcibly acquire huge tracts of land from farmers at way below market prices.

A typical example: SLA probably acquired a large piece of land in 1960 for $100,000 from all the owners and resold the same land in 2009 to HDB or private developers for $230 million.

HDB, being one part of the huge public housing mechanism, may be making a loss on accounting. But in the big family picture, the government has raked in billions and chanelled some of those profits to HDB.

Still think that HDB/govt/SLA is making a loss from building homes for Singaporeans?

George Bush has started an ill-timed and disastrous war under false pretenses by lying to the American people and to the Congress; he has run a budget surplus into a severe deficit; he has consistently and unconscionably favored the wealthy and corporations over the rights and needs of the population; he has destroyed trust and confidence in, and good will toward, the United States around the globe; he has ignored global warming, to the world's detriment; he has wantonly broken our treaty obligations; he has condoned torture of prisoners; he has attempted to create a theocracy in the United States; he has appointed incompetent cronies to positions of vital national importance.

SG was ranked #133rd out of 175 in 2009 for press freedom. In 2010, we are now #137 ranking, worse than and far behind Morocco, Iraq, Cambodia, Zimbawe and Egypt!!

Enough said. Why else do we expect our Minister llike MBT to come clean? We live in a widespread opaque system in SG. We have officially a standard of living that rival Russia (UBS report) & ranked close with Russia on freedom of press. I think Russia is our new best friend now. The Oligarchies continue.

Why can't MBT reveal simple home ownership rate/ upsize/downsize, cost base & subsidy data by different income segment & across ages for the last 50 years so that we can decide how successful the HDB home-ownership really is? That way young people can make informed choices to see if they wish to have this asset-enhancing or liability-enhancing program? Time has changed and people's needs too. Singaporeans have the right to make informed choices.

Do we owe our existence to PAP? A 17yo young girl wrote a very compelling argument of freedom over stability trade off. That was in 2006, 5 years later, we are asking this question AGAIN!

If you're an older voter with children, I urge you to think about your mindless bondage. If you're a younger voter, please do the right thing for your own generations. Everyone should ask - AT WHAT PRICE? Is a very lame clutch that PAP wants you to carry for perpetuity to even entrench its invisible power in place. I am sure we will be back again in 2016 to argue the same thing ALL OVER AGAIN if we don't start a more urgent nation-building - that is voting for a world class parliament of alternative voices and representation of singaporeans.

Just read a family of 3 (parents & son) was attacked by the hawkers from china. This one happened at the clementi foodcourt -- and the singaporean family has to run for their life. Bruises and punches and medical treatment & all..who're the people that bring in these "quality" talents??

I have only one question. What will happen to the price of existing HDB flats, and what will happen to owners of existing HDB flats, if the new HDB flats are priced according to the median income?

I foresee that prices for existing HDB flats will drop. How drastically? I don't know. But existing owners, especially those who bought their flats at peak prices, will unfortunately have to carry on paying a high price for their flats. Selling their flats will mean losing a whole chuck of their money.

Do we ignore these group of people? Now I don't own a flat now, and I'm all for lowering the cost of new HDB flats, especially since I'm planning to get married soon. But I recognize that existing flat owners are Singaporeans too. So unless the WP has something planned, I'd think that this housing plan marginalizes a certain group of Singaporeans too, just as the PAP's policies marginalizes the poor. Pot Kettle Black.

What subsidies ? Market subsidies ? This land space for housing is more than enough for our own population (2m to 3m including children) & should be equitably shared among its own citizens @ very affordable price.

This land should not be expropriated by strictly free market mechanism (or encouraging such tendency) enabling powerful private money to carve out a better slice on properties and hence cause an upward pressure on overall pricing.

/Do we ignore these group of people? Now "I don't own a flat now, and I'm all for lowering the cost of new HDB flats, especially since I'm planning to get married soon. But I recognize that existing flat owners are Singaporeans too. So unless the WP has something planned, I'd think that this housing plan marginalizes a certain group of Singaporeans too, just as the PAP's policies marginalizes the poor. Pot Kettle Black./

Would you prefer to see the prices keep on going up having the comfort of enhancing asset value (on paper only as one needs another one to stay) while the increasing higher price may impose on yourself or you sons after getting married sometimes beyond your ability to own a house or to service the mortgage.

When you have cut off your nose, do not blame people from trying to stop you from gorging out their own eyes while you have mistakenly believe that others should make good your ability to smell the rose. Do not call others POT just because you are the BLACK KETTLE. Others are trying to prevent themselves from getting the black stain from your BLACK KETTLE rather than making your KETTLE white.

hope they'r still laffing at 60/64, when they'r stillpaying their mortgage, no one wants to employ them andthey have only a miserable handout from CPF Life, not enough to pay for meals theneven in a hawker centre...

The price of resale flats may not be affected much by pricing new flats to median income. This is because the new flats are made available one-time only to Singaporeans. The resale market is a separate market.

Can anyone shed some light on howmany properties do our ministersand cronies own in Singapore?Perhaps, there is a selfish motiveto keep HDB prices escalating.The late wife of the ole man wasknown to own a property investment corporation.

"Following the Workers' Party's (WP) reiteration on Wednesday that prices of new flats should be pegged to median income, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan has said that the real intent of this was to reduce prices, which would be an "asset depreciation policy".

HDB flats are over-valued due to the artificial demand created by the government liberal immigration policy. With all the PRs coming in to complete with us, locals, on the limited flats. If the government has claimed that HDB flats is subjected to market forces, then let market forces dictate the prices. Workers party policy serve only to make HDB flats affordable for the first timer- the same kind of prices that those already have their HDB flat used to enjoy. How can a 99LH leasehold property appreciate in prices forever. Mah's remark is fundamentally flawed and and shows how little understanding he has of the market and the local's concern.

"The price of resale flats may not be affected much by pricing new flats to median income. This is because the new flats are made available one-time only to Singaporeans. The resale market is a separate market."

What is there to say ppl (also eligible first time buyers) in the resale market may consider new flats if the prices are attractively low enough, hence taking the pressure off the resale market.

Of course, the pressure on prices on resale market will still be there if the eligibility to purchase is artificially being expanded e.g to include PRs, foreigners or any tom, dick or harry.

On the other hand, you may build more new houses but the eligibility to purchase may be hindered by the ability to pay (low income) or the necessary pre-requisites to secure loans.

I don't live in Tampines,but I really hope the voters in the GRC will boot MBT & the unfortunate team who is tagged along with him OUT of the parliament.

This is the guy that brought us COE/ERP/PeakHr/CBD etc that has expanded throughout islandwide, and still have not solve the traffic congestion. To conclude on HINDSIGHT- using ERP as a tool to regulate traffic is all balderdash. He's trying to do the same with HDB now. I hope we have the fortune NOT to experience his naviety and unsympathetic policies.

He lives in a bungalow off Holland Road. What does he know about HDB living? He lives and drink his champagne, and the people live and drown in pain.

The voters and younger generations of today are all educated and have healthy aspiration.

As a parent,I just don't understand why Mah Bow Tan cannot share the data of government subsidies with the people. Buying a house is the single most important and expensive thing any individual will have to make in his/her lifetime. My son have been contemplating over private condo or HDB or even renting for the short term. I feel the people have the right to know. Please be more transparent. Our children have the right to make informed choices.

Learn from Sim Ann! <The word foreign talent connotes talent has to come from elsewhere....and singapore has alot of talents". Wowza, she got my vote. Now onwards, I will judge her on her action during the term.

This BG Chan is so yaya-papaya. He speaks, preach and acts like one old PAP crook already, even before he start his campaigning! His fear & seige mentality is not working - sounds like Bush leegime all over again. People you owe it to yourself & children not to buy into his snobbish stance.

If the sellers of the resale market have not enjoyed the first time grant yet, then there is nothing wrong for them to dispose of their resale flat and buy a new one. That's the point isn't is? To provide affordable housing for Singaporeans.

Social political blogger are also activists of a different kinds. Over the years, peoples' ability to present their alternative thoughts and rational views have gotten better. And hopefully this trend will continue, so that more people are not just merely "consumer" of blogs and views, but also participate and debate & sharing key data actively. If it is any indicator to go by, the coming election has shown bloggers have come together to express, critiques their positions against alot of policies that have affected the people personally. Let's face it, not everybody has the time to take part in the ground RC/CC or want to for obvious reasons. How else do this vocal group be heard? Can you name any tools and mechanism that is currently in place by PAP that actually promote or allow that?

There is a place and role for political bloggers. All it needs is an inflection point for the wisdom of crowd to take this wave and effectuate the transition of a more open society without major disruptions. And it goes beyond just the perfunctory & superficial twitter or facebook likes currently managed by PAP to look good and engaging on the surface come elections time.

If leave you with this

" A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction."

MBT - If you won't change your position based on facts presented to you (or refute them with facts of your own) then there is not much point to the discussion. More importantly, if there is no chance for someone to convince you they are correct, then why should you be accorded the same opportunity?

"MBT - If you won't change your position based on facts presented to you (or refute them with facts of your own) then there is not much point to the discussion. More importantly, if there is no chance for someone to convince you they are correct, then why should you be accorded the same opportunity?"Anon 16/4/11 17:12

Why would MBT care whether you had accorded him the same opportunity?

66% will most likely accorded not just him, but also 85 or 86 others of the PAP camp the opportunity to remain as or become MPs.

Look. Your fellow liberals retards are destroying the oppositions election even before it started.In the meantime ...Cow is importing Doctors from CHINA!Hen is importing Teachers from INDIA!

The time for talk is over. Your children's future may already be over (and it could be a short one) but lets give it a shot.It is time you pledge your support to ONE of the opposition parties. I would like to suggest WP.

PAP will still win 2/3 majority. Question is how many seats will Opposition gain.

With the dangling of NMP, the slate that are supposedly representing the alternative voices of singaporeans, is quite amusing that they didn't consult with the people how and why these NMPs are appointed on what basis? And unfortunately, alot of kiasi & gutless voters will simply fall for it, so it might actually deny the mandate for Opp candidates.

I overheard Mah saying in the news this evening that the land is like the reserve of Singapore and asking the SLA to sell land lower than market price is like taking from the reserve... which is why we need a highly paid president etc, etc,.

I do not have a deep knowledge what the Singapore government does with our so call reserves. What I do know is that the investments made by GIC and Temasek so far are far, very far from impressive.

The government cannot even afford to pay decent interest on our CPF... money that is practically locked-in forever. If given a choice, I think we can easily find a wide range of investments with better rate of returns for our CPF e.g., insurance companies.

Under the current policy that has been clarified recently, HDB are built for Singaporeans/PRs to STAY. No if, no buts.

There are also strict policies for the limited rental flats and the government does not allow us to sleep on the street or in the parks.

Therefore, even if it is so call "tapping into the reserves" and asking SLA to sell the land "below market" to HDB for the citizens/PRs of Singapore to STAY, is it so bad???

If we have a choice i.e., call for a referendum to ask the people whether 1) we want to accumulate our reserves by charging us high price for HDB (effectively taking money from us) and letting the gamblers and speculators of GIC play with OUR money in the hope that some day we will need and draw on the "reserves", if it has not been gambled away (oops! I mean invested and achieve negative returns by GIC) and is still available then, or

2) do we want a cheaper and more affordable HDB that benefit us NOW, I think the answer is quite clear.

This is another example of the PAP making simple things complicated to confuse us. It is like PAP charging the poor GST and then create jobs for civil servants to distribute the money back to the poor??? I am just too stupid to make sense from their arguments.

HDB $300k where got expensive?!! Try $675m instead. And they don't call that raiding the reserves..they call it "investing for higher returns"

Everything the Party & the Gov benefits. Tell me where do Singaporeans get - $600-800 per person for the next 4 years!! Who're the thieves?----

GIC says booked loss from $675mln Stuyvesant investment

Reuters reports, "The Government of Singapore Investment Corp [GIC.UL] said on Monday it has already booked losses on its investment in Stuyvesant Town, given the New York apartment complex's debt problems.

PAP is evil. It is not a compassionate government. Cost of living is too high in this country. Help! Cost of living is a bigger issue than foreigners!

But it seems these foreigners are all working PRs from China and India, they are not men or women fellow singaporeans married. But they are worker bees brought by the government to replace our children's job. Good luck to those university undergraduates in NUS, NTU and SMU when they graduate this year. How are they going to get jobs?

They will read the newspapers that employment is high but the reality is that even their last year's senior have not found jobs. It's scary to see your juniors graduating and you still haevn't found a job.

But what is sick to my stomach, is that while govt had accumulated soooo enormous sum of reserves, yet they keep depriving its people the wealth they have helped to create. Does that not violate your sense of fairness and justice? And no one is suggesting we spend ALL of our reserves, but come on, this is the clear cut case like MPs making milllion dollars while the people suffer. If you even buy into the future" opium in their manifesto, you're truly a daft. Why don't they be ACCOUNTABLE to the people first, instead of trying to neuter their voices and rights, including the PRESIDENT's!

"This is because the new flats are made available one-time only to Singaporeans."

I don't think if young Singaporean couples have to wait 4-5 years for a BTO is the idea of making new flats available to them.

These young Singaporean couples already find the system bad. And the system was made by Minister Mah. He has mismanaged it all and hurting many young couples.

What is he forcing couples to wait 5 years? THis is UNNECESSARY PAIN AND SUFFERING.

AND ALL YOU FUCKING SELFISH SINGAPOREANS WHO ALREADY HAVE A FLAT, PLEASE SPARE A FUCKING THOUGHT AND CONSIDERATION FOR THE REST OF THE SINGAPOREANS WHO ARE MARRIED AND HAVE TO WAIT FOR A FUCKING FLAT FOR 5 YEARS WHEN MANY OF THESE PEOPLE ARE YOUR CHILDREN OR YOUR FUTURE CHILDREN. STOP BEING SELFISH AND KIASU AND PUT THAT MINISTERT TO ACCOUNT.

Where is the transparency, Minister Mah? You are hurting us!!!!!! Why are you doing this??????!!!!!

To all SIngaporeans: PLease SPARE A THOUGHT FOR OTHER SINGAPOREANS! DOn't be KIASU!!!!!!

Even today...no a single Singaporean knows how much it costs Minister Mah Bow Tan to build a HDB unit?

This information still remains eleusive after 45 years of nation building.

I think people have already lost trust with our government.

It is clear that people know about all these things lah. They are talking about it.

It's a bad system. We all live it. But ministers are not born in a HDB flat and they don't live with HDB heartlanders. They use the RC residents to do their dirty work so they do not need to dirty their own hands.

By the way, I was driving near Marina Bay Sands and I saw white canvas placed over new ERP gantry points nears to the Singapore Flyer.

GST, MRT fares, taxi rentals and more ERP gantries and prices will increase by the end of this year.

Cost of living is really high in Singapore.

Some changes I have made to my life to survive in Singapore:

I buy a wholemeal bread to each 2 slices every morning and make my own cup of coffee. The whomeal bread is $2.30 per week. I can save a lot of money here.

I stop taking taxis even when I'm tired. THe problem I face, like many others, is that I am late for work because the feeder buses are overcrowded and so are the trains. I leave for work early but the waiting time is long as the buses are fully packed and won't stop for me. I have to wait for the second or third busese or trains to arrive.

I still come late to work but I told my boss, the buses and MRTs are too crowded. My boss didn't say anything. He told me to come out earlier. That means I have to leave home 30 mins earlier than my already 50 mins journey + 30 mins early usual time. I need to leave home 1 hr earlier before for a 50 min journey to work.

How thoughtful and compassionate of my government. They give me $$$ before election but they don't fix the bus and transport problem.

No more taxis for me.

No more movies for me.

I am planning to reroute my journey to work. I intend to walk 15 mins to a bus stop and take a bus back to the interchange then take a feeder home. This way, I don't need to take the lrt and mrt plus bus home. And save more money.

What can I do? This is what is happening to my promised "Swiss standard of living."

I can't imagine after they increase everything after the election, how things will be like?

Already many middle aged aunties I know are voting for the PAP when they receive their money in the letter boxes last week.

"I overheard Mah saying in the news this evening that the land is like the reserve of Singapore and asking the SLA to sell land lower than market price is like taking from the reserve."

Technically, the whole piece of land belongs to the people of singapore. So what is so wrong as to price it cheaper or at zero cost and make it easier for the people in terms of affordable housing or roof for the people rather than charging high (taxing on existing income / potential future income not yet earned and no gurantee of earning) which goes into the reserves which again belongs to the people.

As for reserves, how are you going to know the basis of redistribution as far as individuals are concerned whereas the charging of high land cost (hence HDB flats) is immediately felt hitting one's pockets currently and for many years to come for HDB flat owners.

From so many comments, it seems a lot of people not happy and satisfied.

But for 45 years, at every election, at least 60% voted for PAP.

Which means only 2 possiblities:

#1. At least 60% happy and satisfied so they voted PAP.

#2. Some of the 60% not happy nor satisfied but still voted PAP.

Realistically I would think it is more likely #2 case.

This coming election, will the #2 case vote opposition this time?

I would say yes, and PAP % vote will definitely drop but they will still get at least 55%.

Unless majority voters, although a lot may be very unhappy, want opposition to win big, which is also very unlikely.

And due to the GRC system, and with just 55%, PAP can still win 86seats out of 87 !!!!!

It is very possible because Singapore is small and urban. With a good design of the SMC/GRCs, you can roughly have the same mix of unhappy and happy, rich and poor people in all the GRCs and SMCs. And PAP knows this and that's why every election they always redrew boundaries due to this reason.

Therein lies the reality of Singapore politics and why PAP not only will win but also wins big.

Very sad for those who suffer under the system. They have to help themselves because even God can't help them.

Basically, on the demand & supply theory, if there is less supply of HDB thus there is more demand & these will increase the HDB price. However, we have enough supply of HDB houses hence there should not be a reason for the exponential increase in public housing prices as they are meant for the public:- SG citizens such young couple to setup family, elderly who wants smaller flats & retire, nuclei family - these are schemes of SG thus public housing should be rights presented to the locals instead of locals fighting for their rights & esp today as the birthrate is low, thus SG community is in sustainable size where the supply of HDB should be at surplus, which should automatically decrease the price.

singaporean hate waiting for housing,and moveover hdb housing is not free for us,we hv to pay for it.some couple cant wait at spike up due to many reason.if gov ready care for our hard work etc etc,they should think for us and not finding so many excuse.we all singaporean help to build up this country,beautyful country but end up,ask yourself,we gain what??an affordable housing which we hv to wait for many yrs??by rewarding us giving so many rule,policy??

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